But they wouldn’t have sought him out if not for his immense talent that led him to the College Football Hall of Fame and nine Pro Bowls in the NFL.

Sporting News caught up with Brown to talk about a variety of things—what about those Shamrock Series Irish uniforms?—including being one of the former college greats featured on the recently released EA NCAA Football 14 game.

Q: So you’re one of the college football’s greatest players and featured in the Ultimate Team portion of the game. That’s pretty cool, isn’t it?

Brown: It’s incredible for me. I have a 10-year-old son who loves this game. He pretty much missed all of my career—especially my college days. So I can tell him how good I am, but for him to see that daddy has special powers means a little something, you know what I mean?

Q: Are you pleased with how your game version turned out?

Brown: What I see, I like. Especially if you kick me the ball on kick return or punt me the ball on a punt return—we’re going to have some fun.

Q: Does your son play with you on his team?

Brown: That’s interesting. When his friends are over, he wants to play with me. It’s cool then—oh yeah, I play with my dad. When it’s just the family, he doesn’t want to have anything to do with me. Then he wants to play with Barry Sanders or somebody else. It’s all good.

Q: Is there a former great you’d want on your team in the game?

Brown: Being that I played with this guy for three years and knowing that he’s a freak of nature for real and in an animated stage he may even be more of a freak of nature. I would have to choose Bo Jackson. I just can’t imagine how many more powers he could have than he has in real life.

Q: Johnny Manziel is in the news for signing autographs and allegedly getting paid. Were you asked to sign a lot at Notre Dame?

Brown: I was the first Heisman winner at Notre Dame in 23 years, so it was a pretty big deal. It was to the point that every five steps you were taking, somebody was asking for your autograph. People were carrying around footballs and hats just for a chance to bump into me. That became a little aggravating, especially in South Bend in January when it’s 20 below, walking around and people want you to stop outside.

Q: How did you handle all the attention?

Brown: We set up something at the football office initially and it got too big. There were 300-400 pieces there overnight. I had to sign all that stuff. So what I did was, I set up something in my dorm. I had a little system. If you want to put stuff in here, everything that’s signed is going to be on the other side of the hall. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I only had one class that morning. I’d go to class and be done by 10:30 and just sit there for three or four hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays and sign stuff. … It worked out pretty good so I could be as normal as possible walking around campus, but at the same time knowing that I had 400 pieces of memorabilia waiting to be signed.

Q: Did you have issues with people wanting to pay you for signings?

Brown: People know who is vulnerable to this stuff and who’s not vulnerable to the stuff because you open yourself up to certain things. If you’re protected by the school and by your family, that’s the only way they’re [not] going to get to you.

Q: Have you seen the new Notre Dame uniforms they’ll wear Oct. 5 vs. Arizona State?

Brown: Wow (as Brown views them on his computer). Shamrock on one sleeve. What is that on the other sleeve? Oh, they’re messing with the helmet again. What the Notre Dame guys say is this: As long as they do this away from Notre Dame Stadium they can do whatever they want to do. In other stadiums you have to show people you’re trying to have some swag. But if you come out in that Notre Dame Stadium with something on that helmet or with some other kind of blue jersey, you’re going to have a problem.

Q: Not something you’d wear?

Brown: You do what you have to do, but it’s not something I would have been asking for, that’s for sure.

Brown: Oh man, what a beast this guy is. On one of our shows this week I heard that they’re going to move him around. So not only will the left tackle have sleepless nights before the game, now the whole offensive line will be having sleepless nights.

Brown: He’s a very talented guy. I would love to see him show what he can do after the catch a little bit more by catching balls underneath. The problem sometimes with some of these guys and they’re so used to running by everybody in college and then they get to the NFL and wonder why they can’t do that.